arduino in art

8/10/2019 Arduino in art

1/12

Arduino Tool: For Interactive Artwork Installations.

Murtaza Hussain Shaikh

Department of Computer and Information Science (IDI), Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU), Trondheim 7448 - Norway.

ABSTRACTThe emergence of the digital media and computationaltools has widened the doors for creativity. The cuttingedge in the digital arts and role of new technologies can

be explored for the possible creativity. This gives anopportunity to involve arts with technologies to makecreative works. The interactive artworks are ofteninstalled in the places where multiple people can interactwith the installation, which allows the art to achieve its

purpose by allowing the people to observe and involvewith the installation. The level of engagement of theaudience depends on the various factors such as aestheticsatisfaction, how the audience constructs meaning,

pleasure and enjoyment. The method to evaluate theseexperiences is challenging as it depends on integration

between the artificial life and real life by means ofhuman computer interaction.This research investigates How Adriano fits forcreative and interactive artwork installations? usingan artwork installation in the campus of NTNU(Norwegian University of Science & Technology). Themain focus of this investigation has been to get anoverview on the intersection between informationtechnology and Arts. This gives an opportunity tounderstand various attributes like creativity, cooperationand openness of processes influencing the creativeArtworks. The artwork is combination of Adriano andother auxiliary components such as sensors, LEDs andspeakers. The data for analysis is mainly collectedthrough the questionnaire to people interacting with theinstallation. This data collected proved that the choice ofhardware and software plays a vital role in shaping thecreative artworks; the investigation has also showed thatthere are other factors as well which will influence thecreativity such as budget, selection of tools and designfor the artwork.

Keywords Artwork installations; Artist; Adriano;Creativity; Auxiliary components; Questionnaires;Interactivity; Collaboration; Intersection; Sensors.

1. INTRODUCTIONAs the computer science field has grown to beubiquitous part of humans life, the need for makingsoftware and hardware support to fit to the needs of theusers is constantly increasing. The issue closelyconnected with this phenomenon is creativity. Nearlyevery activity is involved with the creativity. Creativityoccurs when somebody produces work which is useful,generative and influential [1]. While creativity isinvolved with every work but it is difficult to access the

creativity as creativity differs from person to person. Thecreative work from one person may seem to be generalwork from others point of view. The historical andPsychological attributes are also important to define thecreativity [2]. The emergence of the digital media and acomputational tool has opened the doors for creativity[3]. The cutting edge in the digital arts and role of newtechnologies can be explored for the possible creativity[3]. This gives an opportunity to involve arts withtechnologies to make creative works. There are otherfactors which influence the creative work, one suchfactor is the interactivity. The interactivity defines thatartist; artwork and user have a role to play in order togive shape to the output of an interactive artwork [4].The information technology have been influencing inshaping the creative artworks from 1960s. There is anintersection of Arts and Software interests which attractsthe people from different backgrounds to work togetherfor creative Artworks [5]. The tools available these daysare very well suited to fulfill the needs of people fromdifferent background. There are many open sourcesoftware and hardware tools available explicitly forcreative works, one such tool is Arduino. An Arduino isan open source electronics prototyping platformconfigured with electronic components such as microcontrollers, LEDs, sensors etc. and it can be used forcreating interactive objects and environments [6].

2. PROBLEM DESCRIPTIONThe main focus is to get an overview on the intersection

between information technology and Arts. This gives anopportunity to understand various attributes likecreativity, cooperation and openness of processesinfluencing the creative Artworks [7]. As a result of thiswork will mainly focus on enhancing state-of- arttechnology and research on the collaboration betweensoftware and arts with its implementation addressing theenvironment issues like water pollution, this will lay agood foundation for the future work on Role of creativityin shaping the Artworks. With the above stated goals, we

propose the following research problem statement forthis project;

To study the Arduino for creative and interactive Artwork installations.

More concretely, the research is carried out tounderstand the collaboration between art and softwareusing Arduino based artwork with water pollution ascase study of research. The research is carried out withan installation which has a message about side effects of

978-1-4244-6448-7/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE


2/12

the water pollution. The primary goal of this paper is tounderstand the interaction between Artwork, Artist,Visitor and software / hardware phenomenon of ArTeconceptual framework [8]. As the artwork is concernedwith the environment issue of water pollution, there is

possibility to extending the research further to;

Understand the collaboration between the softwareand arts in solving environmental issues.

Educating the people about the environmentalconcerns and at the same time encouraging them to becreative.

2.1 Research MethodologyThe purpose of the research was to get a deeperunderstanding of the various elements involved in thecreative and interactive artworks; the research methodused was explorative, as the explorative study is helpfulfor the researcher to understand the research problem

[52]. This method gives an opportunity to get betterunderstanding of one has not aware on and also gives anopportunity to researchers to base their work on previousexisting works [9]. The research was conducted basically

by using two types of research methods: the firstresearch method was to explore the literature to get anunderstanding of the current situation of the interactiveartworks and usefulness of the tools such as Arduino increating interactive artworks. The literature study beingexplorative, rather than systematic provides a platform todiscover unknown and deeper aspects of the artworkinstallations. Secondly, the research involved theinstallation of the artwork and thereby questionnaire was

performed to get find the interactivity of the Artwork.

2.2 Research ScopeThe scope of this research has been narrowed by the

problem definition to understand the usefulness of theArduino in making the creative artworks and factorsinfluencing the produced artwork. The concept behindthe creativity is wide; it depends on the field and natureof the project chosen. In this research we are addressingthe creativity involved with the artwork being developed.Also there is interesting aspect with the installation; the

people interacting with the installation can also use theircreativity to use different artifacts like paper, pen etc to

check the output from the Artwork. The research iscarried out by using an Art installation in a public place,which comprises of Arduino and multimediatechnologies. The multimedia technologies have alsochanged the process involved with art and the usage ofmusic, video and displays in making an appeal to theuser [10]. However, this research does not cover the roleof multimedia technologies in shaping the interactiveinstallations. The results from this research can be usedfor analyzing some of the main issues discussed in

Software Arts such as educational and social issues of artand software [10]. The data collected from the projectwill enable us to fully understand the hardware andsoftware role in shaping the creative artworks andunderstand the various aspects influencing the interactiveArtwork installations. Furthermore, the research can beconducted in the future by using the data collected in this

project. The data collected in this research can be usefulfor analyzing the involvement of Artists in the softwaredevelopment and awareness of people towardsenvironment pollution as the project involves artworkinstallation related to the water pollution and

participants intuition while working with installation.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW ON ARTSTo perform research through the artwork installations, itis essential to understand the various elements involvedin the artwork installations. As we see today there has

been growth of arts from earlier times to current time.The role of technology is more prevalent these days thanthe earlier times. The technology has removed thecomplications involved with the artworks and making itfeasible to deploy artworks for the people in differentfields.

3.1 Historical ConsiderationsThe term ART is often confusing; the meaning of theword has been changing from time to time. The workwhich is considered as an artwork may not haveconsidered as a piece of artwork when it was firstdesigned or the person who have made the work may nothave considered it as an Artwork. The notion of artand artist are relatively modern terms [11]. The Artdoes not have any concrete definition, according to theBritannica online, Art is " the use of skill and imaginationin the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, orexperiences that can be shared with others" [11].Therefore, the art can be considered as the work which

produces some aesthetic sense [12]. At Renaissance phase, the Art emerged as collective term comprisingPainting, Sculpture and Architecture [11]. This hasfurther expanded to the other areas such as Music andPoetry, which became part of the fine arts in the 18thcentury. So, these five fields formed as a fundamentalunit of fine arts separating them from the decorativearts and crafts, such as pottery, weaving, and

furniture making [11]. This arise few questions like howart can be distinguished from crafts. What is thedifference between artist and craftsmen? In the ancientdays, the term we consider, Art today was an activitygoverned by the rules [13]. The activities such asPainting, Sculpture and Weaving were considered ashuman activities rather than crafts [13]. In the latter partof the 19 th century and the beginning of the 20 th century,the notion of truth to ones material emerged. It is called


3/12

as Art for Arts Sake [14]. In the early 20th century,the notions about the art and Artists were penalized andthe Art was redefined as Anything which is produced byan artist is an Art [11]. This has made the Art as a

broad field, which includes different elements involvedin it such as Artists, Artworks, Technologies and peopleinvolved with the artworks, the perception of the

participants or observers and so on. This has made thecommunication as the key aspect to distinguish betweena work and Artwork. The work which has an appeal tothe observers or which communicates a message to theobservers interacting with it can be called as an Artwork[15].

3.2 Current Paradigms of ArtsThe form of art usually differs from the type of Artworksuch as painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture,electronic media such as computer and digital graphics,ceramics, Visual Design, Graphic Design, photographyand so on [16].

3.2.1 PaintingPainting is a graphic art which is made by the applying

paints to a surface using the artistic composition [17].The painting is in existent from the ages. Starting fromthe cave paintings of Lascaux to some great masterpiecesof Leonardo Da Vinci, the arts have played a historicaland aesthetic role in all the ages [18]. In figure3.2.1 oneof the famous paintings named Monalisa in therenaissance phase is illustrated. The paintings developedinto many different types such as historical, allegorical,religious, portrait and so on over the years [18].

Figure 3.2.1 : Monalisa, masterpiece from the painter da vinci in therenaissance period [19]

3.2.2 DrawingDrawing is an Art or technique of producing images on asurface, usually paper, by means of marks in graphite,ink, chalk, charcoal, or crayon [20]. The drawing has

always been part of the art, it is considered as a languagefor expressing the nature and creativity [21].

Figure 3.2.1: Madonna & Child, c.1580, Agostino Carracci work [22]

3.2.3 PhotographyThe photography is a process of producing visual imagesof the objects on photosensitive surfaces, which cancaptures the image [23]. The process of photography isrelatively new to world of art [24]. The arts inrenaissance period grown to large extend based on the

criteria to capture the nature, realism and the emergenceof the photographic devices, the extent to capture theimages has been increased by leaps and bounds. Thedetails which cannot be portrayed by an artist can be

possibly captured with a photograph.

3.2.4 SculptureThe art or practice of making figures and designs usingtools on stones, casting on metals or modeling using clay[25]. The sculpture has been the primary source ofexpression from thousands of years. The sculpture isoften used to represent the societal concerns, such asreligion, politics, and morality [26].

3.2.5 Digital ArtDigital art is a form of contemporary art, makingdistinctive works using the computer technology [29].This art emerged in the 1970 s but came into the limelightafter growth in the technology like computers,softwares, video devices, sound mixers and digitalcameras. The process of digital art has been associatedwith various names computer art and multimedia art butthe digital art is placed itself under the broad category ofMedia Arts [30]. There are different forms of digital artssuch as Algorithmic art, Art game, Art software,Computer art, Computer art scene, Computer generatedmusic, Computer graphics, Computer music, Cyber arts,Demo scene, Digital illustration, Digital imaging, Digitalmorphogenesis, Digital painting, Digital photography,Digital poetry, Dynamic Painting, Electronic art,Electronic music, Evolutionary art, Movie specialeffects, Fractal art, Generative art, Immersion (virtualreality) , Interactive film, Machinima, Motion graphics,Multimedia, Music visualization, New Media Art, NewMedia Photo manipulation, Pixel art, Software art,Systems art, Traditional art, Video art, Video game art,Video game design, Video poetry and Virtual arts [30].

4. ARTIST CREATIVITY ISSUESHaving seen the different forms of arts which form the

basis for creating Artworks today, it is time to focus onthe creativity of the Artist itself. We will not focus on thecreativity among the artists to do the artwork instead wewill focus on the hindrances which artists mightencounter while creating their artworks. There ishowever no secret that some of the works related to the

painting, photography etc has been under criticismduring the past centuries. It is very important to


4/12

understand that creativity is often involved with theArtworks.

4.1 Artworks and CreativityThe artworks produced by an artist can have different

purposes; one of them can be interactivity i.e. to engage

the audience. The interactive artworks are often installedin the places where multiple people can interact with theinstallation, which allows the art to achieve its purpose

by allowing the people to observe and involve with theinstallation [35]. The level of engagement of theaudience depends on the various factors such as aestheticsatisfaction, how the audience constructs meaning,

pleasure and enjoyment [36]. The method to evaluatethese experiences is challenging as it depends onintegration between the artificial life and real life bymeans of human computer interaction [37]. The artworkscan be creative, which involves the participants to workwith the installation to produce some new functionalitywhich can be further developed or which creator of theartwork has not thought of. This creates the necessity tounderstand the creativity thought process developmentand the life cycle of the creativity process in order todesign the artwork having creative edge. The followingsections present the development cycle of creativity, andthen we will present the constraints of creativity andvarious issues relevant with the creative artworkinstallations.

4.2 Creativity Development CycleCreativity is often embedded in every activity we

perform, Creativity can be characterized as a processtowards achieving an outcome recognized as innovative[33].

Figure 4.2: Directed Creativity Cycle [38]

The creativity and innovation can be represented in theform of different stages of development as illustrated inthe figure 6. The stages involved in the creativitydevelopment as illustrated as Directed Creativity Cycle[38] is a synthesis model of creative thinking. The four

phases involved in this creative thinking cycle arePreparation, Imagination, Development, and Action. Thefollowing is the brief description of these phases;

4.2.1 PreparationCreative thinking begins with careful observation of theworld coupled with thoughtful analysis of how thingswork and fail [38]. The preparation phase starts with theobservation i.e. the inspiration and thought to produce acreative art work, it happens by observing our

experience and creativity is triggered [39].

4.2.2 ImaginationThis is the phase of inspiration and creative action [39].The major processes involved in this phase are Time in,Generation and Harvesting. The Time in processmeans the time of silent reflection [38], which includesthe process where we start to train our mind for the newcreative work, for instance, we make our mind like a

blank page which can be explored for any new works[39]. The Generation process is the stage where thecreativity is tried to infuse into the process of work. Thisstage allows the user (i.e. person producing the creativework) to brainstorms or uses mind maps to get overallview of the creative work to be established [39]. TheHarvesting is a process where the creative thoughts aremade available for the use. In other words ready to beharvested into proper plans for actual implementation[39].

4.2.3 DevelopmentThis is the process where the ideas formulated from the

previous phase are put into actual development. Thereare two major processes involved in this phase namelyEnhancement and Evaluation [39]. The Enhancementmeans the process of editing, which allows the user tomodify the thoughts to fit into the actual development[39]. The Evaluation is the process where the creatorreasons himself whether he/ she is achieving what isdesired [39].

4.2.4 ActionThis is the last phase of the cycle which focuses on theactual implementation of the creative thoughts andsharing the work produced with others [39]. The major

process involved in this phase is the Implementationwhich means the task of giving lie to the idea [39]. Thislast phase makes the creator to get new thoughts fromthe evaluation done by the other persons or theinteraction mechanism involved between the people and

work produced. This phase leads seamlessly to the beginning of another creativity cycle [39]. We have seenthe various processes involved in the development of thecreative art works. However, there are other aspectswhich will affect influence the creative work produced

by an Artist (i.e. creator of the artwork). In the nextsection we will present these aspects which influence theartworks produced by an artist.


5/12

4.3 Creativity ConstraintsThe creativity is often bound by the constraints, the trueinnovation happens when the constraints and challengesare surpassed [34]. The following are the variousconstraints in producing creative works. The creativity isoften bound by the constraints, the true innovation

happens when the constraints and challenges aresurpassed [34]. The following are the various constraintsin producing creative works.CHANGING PERSPECTIVES: The perspectives of the

people varies as the creative work from one person maynot be creative to other person, it can be general workfrom his/her perspective. The main challenge is toovercome this barrier and produce the work withoutstanding creativity. The outstanding creative work isany work which has stood test of time and recognized by

people beyond the specialist community [40]. EXPERTISE IN TOOL: The other challenge faced bythe artists is the need to become expert with the tool inorder to produce creative work. The tools such as imageediting, modeling tools requires the user to have goodunderstanding of the various functionalities of the toolsand Programming knowledge in order to increase thehorizons of their creativity.

SELECTION OF TOOLS (HARDWARE/ SOFTWARE): The choice of the tool depends mainly onthe creativity of the artist. The creativity often dependson the selection of the tools for making the creativeartwork. However, there can be some factors which will

prevent the artist using the tools such as not meeting thefull requirements of the project or lack of tool expertise.

4.4 Meeting User ExpectationsThe creativity is also dependent upon the expectations ofthe users i.e. Artists. The Artists often look for the

processes or factors which make the project (or Artwork)feasible. The following are some of the expectationswhich will make the Artist to produce creative work.

LOW COST: The cost plays a major role in designingand planning the artwork. The Artist imagination andcreativity are often hampered by the budget allocated for

producing the artwork. In order to make the artist feelcomfortable with the artwork project is to make the

project composed of the things which are viable and easyto use. One such method is to use the open source, whichwill drastically reduce the cost for the artwork project

and also provides the flexibility for the user to change ormodify according to the needs of the artist as per GNUGPL license provided by the open source.COLLABORATION AMONG MULTIPLE FIELDS: The growth in the technologies has made possible to

produce artworks involving knowledge from differentfields. For instance, the interactive installationsdeveloped by the artists such as Samir M.kadmi artwork-Sonic Onyx [41], yvind Brandsegg artwork Flyndre[42] and so on. These installations are built using

knowledge from many fields such as mechanical,electronic, programming etc. This illustrates that thescope of the artworks are pervasive and it is expandingto various fields. In order to make these installations

possible the collaboration between different people fromdifferent fields is important. It is fruitful to open researchcenters such as COSTART, a research center based onmulti-disciplinary foundations such as Art, Design,Science and Engineering to improve the human computer interaction and facilitate artwork installationsusing collaboration between people from different fields[3].

5. ARDUNIO TOOLArduino is an open-source electronics prototyping

platform having both hardware and software components[6]. The main intention for designing the Arduino

platform is to suit the needs of the artists, designers,hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactiveobjects or environments [6]. The Arduino board consistsof a micro controller which enables to receive inputsfrom the sensors and thereby can be used to drivemotors, LEDs, sensors and other components [45].Microcontrollers are small computational devicesembedded on integrated circuit containing processor,memory and other peripheral I/O pins [46]. The figure

below illustrates one of the Arduino Diecimila, one ofthe microcontroller board based on the ATmega168 [6].The microcontrollers have existed from decades,However Arduino microcontroller is explicitly designedfor artists and designers [45]. The main advantage for theartists and the designers is to execute without knowingthe internal functioning of either hardware or software of

the Arduino [45]. The Arduino was aimed to be used bynon technical users. The Arduino was made apart fromother microcontrollers by providing four major featuresthey are inexpensive, providing an IDE for codedevelopment, programming via USB and communitysupport for Arduino [6].

5.1 Purpose of Artwork InstallationIn recent years, artists are exploring possibilities toextend arts with the computation [31]. The role ofinformation technology is increasing in creating theartworks. The creativity also plays an important role inchoosing the right technologies for the artwork.

Figure 5.1: ArTe conceptual framework


6/12

There are various aspects associated with the interactiveartworks and relations among those elements areimportant to analyze the interactivity of the artwork. Theaspects are Artists, Artwork, Technologies and

participants. The relation between these factors can bestudied using the ArTe conceptual framework asillustrated in the figure 5.1 [32]. The focus on sharing,cooperation and openness is central in the artwork

project, particularly with regards to technology.

5.2 System DescriptionThe following are the design aspects of the createdartwork and its working procedure.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE: The system architectureis illustrated in the figure below, the installation includesa blue strip of paper depicting the river and also Arduinomicro controller is connected to installation along withaudio speakers, LEDs and Flash memory. The LEDs are

placed underneath the river (i.e. blue strip of paper)connected in such a way that it will change the colordepending upon the signals or input received from the

participant (or Artist) working with the project. The participant is provided with a scenario of havingrecycling containers and some toxic containers (Note: thecontainers refer to the vessels holding the garbage) near thewater body. The participants are provided with someartifacts readily available at installation area like paper,

polythene covers, oil or any liquid. When the participant puts those objects in the containers , the IR sensorswhich are present in the containers will detect the objects

being placed and then the LEDs will change their colorand also the color of water (i.e. in our case it is blue

strip) flowing in the artwork (as LEDs are placedunderneath the water). This project also provides scopefor the participant to have creativity edge, by allowing

participant to use other objects to place inside thecontainer. The participant can also sense the music being

played upon adding pollutant to the water. The audiooutput will differ from pleasant music like birds singingor any melody depicting happy moments to sad songsdepending upon the degree of pollution added to thewater. This feature will help the participant and nearbyvisitors to hear and imagine with respect to the sideeffects of pollution.

Figure 5.2 a: The Architecture

Figure 5.2 b: The Installations

HARDWARE: The artwork is mainly built on theArduino microcontroller platform and thereby can bedivided into majorly three functionalities firstly, theLEDs and second one is the sensors and third is theAudio Speakers. The Sensors are used to track theobjects being thrown into the containers and upondetecting the changes in the infra red sensor values thecolor of light in LEDs changes. Also the user will beable to hear the audio from one of the speakers inresponse to the sensor values; the sensors are placed inthe containers to collect the garbage, where one belongsto the environmental friendly container which will not

pollute the water and other being the toxic container,which may pollute the water. The user throws any objectinto the environment friendly container a good melodywith birds singing is played otherwise the audio changesto thunders and storms, to illustrate that something iswrong and is not good for the environment. Theinteractive part of the artwork is when user puts anythingin the container there the artwork will 1) The sensor

detects the user input and container and 2) changes thecolor of the LEDs and 3) The audio is played in responseto the user and container where the objects are put into.

Table 5.2: Specification for tools

5.3 Artwork assessment using ArTe FrameworkThe creativity support tool (such as Arduino) can betruly tested by considering the impact level of tool on thecreative thought process. The assessment has to be basedupon various criteria

`

s such as efficiency of the tool,cognitive support and other subjective assessments [56],


7/12

which are governed by the various phenomenon such asArtist, Artwork, Visitor and Software, The ArTeconceptual model is based upon these phenomenon.Therefore the ArTe conceptual model can be applied toArduino, a creative support tool to understand thecollaboration between the various phenomena associatedwith tools for achieving the creative works. Thefollowing table illustrates the relationships that areassociated with Artwork as per the ArTe framework.

Table 5.3: Relationships with ArTe framework.

6. QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGNThe questionnaire is effective way to collect the datafrom many people for research [52]. This method doesnot often give a chance to go back and ask the questions[52], so we have designed the questions properly toincrease the response rate and probability to get moredata for the analysis. The questionnaires can beclassified mainly into four parts namely, Factual data(basic information about the participants), Interactivity of theArtwork, Hardware and Software fulfilling therequirements of the project, Limitations and scope for

improvement.Factual Data: These questions were mainly to know the background information of the person such as educationlevel, department of study, age group and gender. Thisinformation is essential in order to be aware of thesample of people contributed to the data and their

background related to the Arts or the engineering. Interactivity and Creativity of Artwork: These questionswere designed to check whether the users were able tointeract with the Artwork or not. Also there were fewquestions related to the creativity such as whether theywere able to use the nearby objects with the artwork inorder to check the output. The questions were basicallyclosed, where the users are given an option to select thechoices from pre defined choices [52]. In the latterquestion of this part, user is given a choice to say YES /

NO to get the feedback on the creativeness of theartwork.

Elements of Artwork: This part of questionnaire iscrucial part of the artwork, as we wanted to find out therole of the hardware/ Software and other elements suchas wooden frame or any part involved in the artwork.The questions were mainly degree of agreement

questions, as known as Likert Scale [52] and somewere scaling based questions such as very interesting tonone interesting, in order to truly find the purposefulfilled by various elements in shaping the creativeartwork.

Limitations and Scope of Artwork: This part of thequestionnaire was to find the limitations of the artworkand thereby find out the improvements and furtherdevelopment in order to make it suitable for wideaudiences. The majority of the questions were quantityquestions such as are there additional features that youwould want incorporated into this Artwork? And someof the questions were also based on the closed type [52],such as what are the features required to make it morecreative?

6.1 ParticipantsThe participants required for collecting the sampling orquestionnaires with the students in the university seemedas the most probable method, we have chosen thestudents at researcher

s workplace. This process maynot be enough to test the artwork, but it was selected forvarious reasons. Primarily it fits our analysis wherestudents being from the computer science department,they are somewhat aware of the technologies and tools.Also due to the time constraint and majority of thestudents from other fields are taking their exams, so wehave chosen to perform the research using the datacollected from these chosen set of people.

Figure 6.1: Age group and Gender

In total 7 from the participated 9 students filled thequestionnaires, where 5 persons filled completely and 2

persons fi lled partially and thus yielding a response rateof nearly 80%. Out of the incomplete 2 responses, onewas rejected as they have not answered the essential part


8/12

of the research. This gave the final sample of 6 people,where 84% were the male and 16 percent were female.84% of the students (i.e. Participants) were in the agegroup of 20-25 and only 16 percentages were in the agegroup of 25-30.

Figure 6.1.1: Study Background and level of study of ParticipantsThe background of the students were highly educatedand majority of the students had already completed thedegree either bachelor or masters. All the students wereassociated with computer science department takingvarious programs of study at the university.

6.2 ResultsAs can be seen in the figure 6.2 the responses from the

participants illustrate that the majority of the people areaware of the theme f the project as related to therecycling process and the theme as the water pollution.The percentages for the people thinking as recycling

process were 50 where as 34 felt it as water pollution,while 16 percent of them felt that it has both the shadesof recycling process and the water pollution.

Figure 6.2 : Responses to What is the Purpose of the Project

Not surprisingly, the responses from the people were positive in terms of the interactivity as can be seen in thefigure 6.2 , 34% of the respondents felt that theinteractive and 50% as partially interactive, where as16% as non interactive.

Figure 6.2.1 : Responses to Interactivity of the Artwork?

This is an expected result as the sensors were placedinside the container and people were trying to use nearbyobjects to place in the containers. The responses as can

be seen in figure 6.2.1 prove this fact; nearly 66% of therespondents were able to use the nearby objects to putinto the container.

Figure 6.2.2 : Responses to Were you able to use the nearby objectsto place in the container, Is this creative?

Elements of Artwork: The purpose of this part of thequestionnaire is to access the various parts related to theartwork. As can be seen in the figure 6.2.3 the opinionsare quite in agreement to what we have discussed in the

preliminary studies. The reason for these positiveresponses can be because of the impression made to theuser as correct answer [55]. In the results, we can seethe pattern in the responses and the understanding of theusers. In the responses for the layout and design of theartwork, the responses were mostly ambiguous as nearly33.3 percent for somewhat important, least importantand 33.3 LED`s and unsure about the layout of theartwork. In case of Sensors, people shown some positivesigns as majority of the respondents 34% felt that it waseither somewhat important or important and 16% feltthat it was most important. However, 16 percent haveresponded for least important. In the case of speaker, the


9/12

respondents felt that it is important as 34 percent forimportant and 50% for somewhat important, where as 16

percent for least important. For the LED`s, nearly half ofthe people felt that important.

Figure 6.2.3 : Responses to How important are the following featuresof the Artwork?

In order to completely understand the drawbacks of thecreated artwork and the importance of the artwork, the

question was asked on the interesting aspects of theartwork, thereby and the responses were for the LED`s,34% felt that it is either uninteresting or neutral and 16

percent felt that it is interesting and also not sure of. Inthe case of the audio output from the artwork, 16% forthe interesting and 34% of the response for bothinteresting and neutral. For the Containers placed in theartwork, the majority of the responses were neutral as50% felt neutral and 16 percent for uninteresting andalso unsure about the containers. For the design of theartwork, the responses were mostly towards the unclearand uninteresting as 34% were unsure and 16 percentwere uninteresting, 34% were also neutral about the

design.

Figure 6.2.4: Responses of Would the following features make youmore or less interested in Artwork?

Limitations and Scope of Artwork: In order to test thescope of the project and future implementations, theresponses were asked about the features which can beadded to make it more creative and the factors effectingthe development of these artwork projects and itsimplementation to the needs of the users. As can be seenin the figure 6.2.5 the responses were mixed as it can beseen nearly 34 percent were neutral about the artwork to

their needs and remaining others were spread from verylikely to unlikely.

Figure 6.2.5: Responses to Are you interested in developing thesekinds of artworks for your needs?

The responses for the factors for developing the artworkcan be seen in the figure 6.2.6 the responses for thereasonably priced, 34% were stating that they are inagreement either strongly or somewhat. 16 percent for

both neutral and somewhat disagree. In the case of theCollaboration with people from other fields to completethe artwork, 16% were strongly agreeing and 50%somewhat agree. Whereas, 34% of them were neutral.For the selection of tools for design of the artwork, theresponses were mostly uniform as 50% were neutral andremaining were either agreeing partially or disagreeingwith it.

Figure 6.2.6: Responses for Developing the Artwork bythemselves

The responses for the needs of the creative artworks ascan be seen in figure 6.2.7 are almost same as 34 percentfelt that it should meet the user expectations, userfriendliness and better selection of tools.

Figure 6.2.7: Responses to What are the features required tomake it more creative?


10/12

7. VALIDITY AND LIMITATIONSOur findings are purely indications of users (i.e. studentsin the computer science department IDI) experiences andtheir interaction with the artwork, and should not beunderstood as evidence. Possible sources of bias in thequestionnaire may result due to the age, nationality and

education. In addition, the fact that respondents in thequestionnaire are related to the researcher as friendsmay have influenced the responses as well, for instance,answering the questions as may be correct instead ofgiving an honest answer. However, the responses fromone person are disclosed from another in order to avoidthis. If the artwork is installed in different public placesand gathering responses from wide probability sample,which could have provided us more in depth analysis ofvarious questions mentioned in the questionnaire.However, with respect to the purpose of the project, wefeel that the questionnaires have served their purpose toget a response on the different aspects as found during

preliminary studies of the project. To conclude, we feelthat the results are sufficient to perform the analysis andcan provide a good foundation for further research in thisfield.

6. CONCLUSIONThe purpose of the Artwork installation is to enhance theknowledge of the participants over the environmentissues concerning water pollution, thus leading toincrease the awareness over this water pollution

problem, it seems that the participants are already awareon the water pollution and its causes to the environment.It is therefore can be seen that almost 50 percentage ofthe respondents in the questionnaire were able to predictthat water pollution is usually effected by various factorssuch as garbage dumping and industrial wastage, thusunderstanding the role of the containers in the artwork.When compared to this 34 percent felt that the artwork isinteractive and 50 percentage of the participants foundthat the artwork is partially interactive as there were no

proper guidelines to operate the artwork, it confirms thatthe artwork is able to convey the message of making

people aware of the water pollution issues and alsoartwork was interactive enough to engage the

participants, thereby the artwork played as a source to provide the scenario concerning to the environment. Thereasons for users not being interactive with the artworkcan be related to the various factors governing the

interactivity such as improper choice of the tools ortechnologies used lack of involvement from the usertowards the artwork and so on. Although we have somany different factors influencing the artwork, majorityof people felt either partially interactive or interactiveand also filling the field such as additional comments inthe questionnaire, participants answered that the artworkis interactive and can be improved for making it easy tounderstand and operate , also they answered that theywere delighted by the fact that the artwork is able to

communicate a message upon sensing the things beingdropped into one of the container provided in theartwork. Also they were impressed by the sound whenthe music pattern changes upon the small things droppedinto the different containers. However, the participantssuggested it could have been better if it was connecteddirectly to sensors rather than operating it manually.Another interesting aspect of the artwork we presentedwas to find the creativity of the artwork, the scope ofcreativity provided by the artwork as either way of usingthe things nearby the artwork such as papers, pens or theway the participants able to imagine while working withthe artwork. These are the essential factors for a creativeartwork while simultaneously making the participantsaware of the intention of artwork i.e. awareness on thewater pollution. The observation performed illustratedthat participants were able to use their creativity andthereby involve the small objects such as pen with theartwork in order to test the artwork. We have presentedvarious factors which can influence the artwork, onesuch being the choice of the tools being used for theartwork. We have chosen the Arduino as a platform forthe hardware required for the artwork. The role ofArduino was critical as it should support various othercomponents such as Leds, sensors and speaker, which

play a vital role in completing the artwork and its purpose. The Arduino tool fulfilled these primary aspectsof providing a means of message related to water

pollution and at the same time it helped in producing anartwork which is interactive. It seems that there are otherfactors concerning the Arduino such as technical aspects,one should possess the knowledge to use the hardwareand way of connecting ports of different components

such as ground, VCC and so on. The tool also providesthe good interface to program, However there are otherfactors which has to be considered here such as theknowledge of programming, the Arduino supports the

processing programming language so the artwork creatorshould have expertise in programming language in orderto effectively utilize the programming and its functionsto the needs. It has been found during development thatthe artwork needs knowledge in electronics in order toconnect to various pins of Arduino and also good

programming knowledge in order to be able to controlthe components and utilizing the outputs from onecomponent to another. These aspects related to the

hardware and programming of Arduino tool can beaccessed from the persons, who have already used it. The data collected through this research can also be usedfor finding the role of Aesthetics and technologies witharts as there are different components and technologiescontributing to the produced artwork.


11/12

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTI would like to express my gratitude to the department ofComputer and Information Sciences (IDI), NorwegianUniversity of Science & Technology (NTNU) for all the helpin writing this paper. I would especially like to thank my

beloved Mother Mrs.Naseem Ahsan Shaikh who always prayand helped me to improve my scientific /academic career.

REFERENCES

[1] Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996), Creativity: Flow and Psychology ofinvention. New York: Harper-Collins.

[2] Boden, M.A. The Creative Mind: Myths & Mechanisms.Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1997.

[3] Ernest A. Edmonds, Alastair Weakleya, Linda Candy, Mark Fell,Roger Knott, Sandra Paulettod. The studio as laboratory:Combining creative practice and digital technology research, Int.J. Human-Computer Studies 63 (2005) 452481, Elsevier

publications.[4] Karl D. D. Willis. 2006. User authorship and creativity within

interactivity. In proceedings of the 14th annual ACMinternational conference on Multimedia (MULTIMEDIA '06).ACM, New York, NY, USA, 731-735.

DOI=10.1145/1180639.1180796http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1180639.1180796

[5] SU Ahmed, L Jaccheri, SM'kadmi- Arts and Technology: SonicOnyx: Case Study of an Interactive Artwork, 2010 Springer.

[6] Electronic Publication: Arduino website, Available[online]:http://www.arduino.cc/, last accessed on Oct 07, 2010.

[7] Electronic Publication: Letizia Jaccheri , Art and Technologywebsite, Available [online]: www.artentnu.com, last accessed on

Nov 02, 2010[8] Electronic Publication: Letizia Jaccheri , Art and Technology

website, ArTe conceptual framework, Available [online]:www.artentnu.com, last accessed on Nov 02, 2010

[9] Electronic publication: Stacpac website, David S. Walonick. THERESEARCH PROCESS, 1993. Available [online]:http://www.statpac.com/research-papers/research-process.htm,last accessed on Nov 17, 2010.

[10] Anna Trifonova, Salah U. Ahmed and Letizia Jaccheri. SArt:Towards Innovation at the Intersection of Software Engineeringand Art, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference onInformation Systems Development, 29-31, Springer, 2007.

[11] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe and Sweet Briar College,department of art history, sweet briar college website, what isArt? What is an Artist? Available [online]:http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/artartists.html, lastaccessed on Nov 20, 2010.

[12] Electronic publication: General concept of art, author [unknown],Available [online]: http://www.url.biz/Articles/Article-3371.html,last accessed on Nov 20, 2010.

[13] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe, Art & Artists in theAncient World and Middle Ages, Available [online]:http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/ancmed.html

[14] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe, ART & ARTISTS: theRoots of Modernism, Available [online]:

http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/modernism.html [15] Electronic publication: Definition: Artwork, Available [online]:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/artwork, last accessed on Nov20, 2010

[16] Electronic publication: Canley Da Vinci, Researching Art,http://www.canleyvale.hs.education.nsw.gov.au/, last accessed on

Nov 21, 2010.[17] Electronic publication: Definition of painting, Available [online]:

wordnetweb.princeton.edu, last accessed on Nov 21, 2010.[18] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe and Sweet Briar College,

department of art history, sweet briar college website, Article onPainting, Available [online]:

http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/painting.html lastaccessed on Nov 18, 2010.

[19] Electronic publication: Mona Lisa, da vinci Mona Lisa, the MonaLisa, author [unknown], Available [online]:http://monalisa.2artgallery.com/, last accessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[20] Electronic publication: Definition: Drawing, Available [online]:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171125/drawing,last accessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[21] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe and Sweet Briar College,department of art history, sweet briar college website, Article onDrawing, Available [online]:http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/drawing.html lastaccessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[22] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe and Sweet Briar College,department of art history, sweet briar college website, Article onCarracci Drawing, Available [online]:http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/drawcarracci.html lastaccessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[23] Electronic publication: Definition: Photography, Available[online]:http://www.answers.com/topic/photography#ixzz15xZ2xH98,last accessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[24] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe and Sweet Briar College,department of art history, sweet briar college website, Article onPhotography, Available [online]:http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/photography.html lastaccessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[25] Electronic publication: Definition: Sculpture, Available [online]:http://www.answers.com/topic/sculpture#ixzz15xtqWDZn, lastaccessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[26] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe and Sweet Briar College,department of art history, sweet briar college website, Article onSculpture, Available [online]:http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/sculpture.html lastaccessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[27] Electronic publication: Definition: Pottery, Available [online]:http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/pottery, lastaccessed on Nov 22, 2010.

[28] Electronic publication: Chris Witcombe and Sweet Briar College,department of art history, sweet briar college website, Article onDecorated Pottery, Available [online]:http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/decpot.html last accessedon Nov 22, 2010.

[29] Electronic publication: Definition: Digital Art, Available [online]:http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/digital+art, lastaccessed on Nov 21, 2010.

[30] Electronic publication: Article on Digital Art, Available [online]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_art, last accessed on Nov 21,2010.

[31] SU Ahmed, L Jaccheri, SM'kadmi- Arts and Technology: SonicOnyx: Case Study of an Interactive Artwork, 2010 Springer.

[32] Letizia Jaccheri, ArTe conceptual framework, Art andTechnology, Available [online]: www.artentnu.com, last accessedon Oct 23, 2010.

[33] Umer Farooq, John M. Carroll, and Craig H. Ganoe. 2005.Supporting creativity in distributed scientific communities. InProceedings of the 2005 international ACM SIGGROUPconference on supporting group work (GROUP '05). ACM, New

York, NY, USA, 217-226. DOI=10.1145/1099203.1099242http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1099203.1099242

[34] Electronic publication: Marissa Ann Mayer, Creativity lovesconstraints, Available [online]:http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_07/b3971144.htm last accessed on Nov 26, 2010.

[35] Electronic publication: Article on Interactive Art, Available[online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_art, lastaccessed on Dec 04, 2010.

[36] Zafer Bilda, Interactive Experience in Public Context: TangoTangle, Leonardo, Vol. 40, No. 4. (2007), pp. 364-365.


12/12

[37] Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, Art as a LivingSystem: Interactive Computer Artworks, Leonardo 32, No. 3,165173 (1999).

[38] Paul E. Plsek, Working Paper: Models for the Creative Process,Available [online]:http://www.directedcreativity.com/pages/Cycle.html

[39] Mary Jaksch, The Cycle of Creativity and How to Ride It,Available [online]: http://writetodone.com/2009/06/02/how-to-

ride-the-cycle-of-creativity/[40] Ernest Edmonds and Linda Candy. 2002. Creativity, art practice,and knowledge. Commun. ACM 45, 10 (October 2002), 91-95.DOI=10.1145/570907.570939http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/570907.570939

[41] Electronic publication: Website, Sonic Onyx, Available [online]:http://www.soniconyx.org/

[42] Electronic publication: Website, Flyndresang, Available [online]:http://flyndresang.no/

[43] Laurel Harper, How to Access and Unleash Your Creativity,Available[online]:http://www.howdesign.com/article/unleashcreativity/,

published on Jan 24, 2008. , last accessed on Dec 04, 2010.[44] Electronic publication: Website, Open Source Initiative (OSI),

Available [online]: http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd, lastaccessed on Dec 04, 2010

[45] Alicia M. Gibb, New media art, design, and the Arduinomicrocontroller: a malleable tool, Masters thesis, 2010.Available [online]: http://aliciagibb.com/thesis

[46] Electronic publication: Website, Wikipedia: Micro Controller,Available [online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcontroller,last accessed on Dec 05, 2010.

[47] Electronic publication: hand throw, Available [online]:http://handthrow.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/cool-arduino-

projects, last accessed on Dec 05, 2010.[48] Electronic publication: Website, Wikipedia: Usability, Available

[online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability, last accessed onDec 05, 2010.

[49] Electronic publication: Website, Processing, Available [online]:http://processing.org/, last accessed on Dec 05, 2010.

[50] Electronic publication: Website, Wikipedia: IDE, Available[online]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment, last accessed on Dec 05, 2010.

[51] Electronic publication: Website, Google Trends, Available[online]: http://www.google.com/trends?q=arduino, last assed onDec 05, 2010.

[52] Oates, B.J. 2006, Researching Information systems andComputing, sage publications ltd.

[53] The Development of a Case Study Methodology in theInformation Technology (IT) Field: A Step by Step Approach BySam Lubbe, (Stake, 1994)

[54] Electronic publication: Stacpac website, David S. Walonick. THERESEARCH PROCESS, 1993. Available [online]:http://www.statpac.com/research-papers/research-process.htm,last accessed on Nov 17, 2010.

[55] Tufo, S.D (2002), Survey and Questionnaire design, Available[Online]:www.evaluationtrust.org/system/files/Questionnaire.doc, LastAccessed Dec 15, 2010

[56] Michael Terry , Open Source as a Test Bed for EvaluatingCreativity Support Tools, Proceedings of the NSF Creative ITworkshop at Arizona State University

arduino in art

Documents